City and County of San Francisco's Consolidated Forensic Sciences Center Project

The Edward Byrne Memorial Discretionary Grants Program (Byrne Discretionary Program) helps local communities improve the capacity of local justice systems and provides for national support efforts. This project is authorized and funded through a line item in the FY 08 Congressional Budget. Funds should be used for purposes recommended by Congress.

The City and County of San Francisco's Department of Public Works (DPW) will fund the planning of a new Forensic Sciences Center, which will be a consolidation of the City's Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) and the Police Department's Forensic Services Division (FSD). The existing facilities for the OCME and the FSD are inadequate for reaccreditation and insufficient for accommodating the staff required to provide the necessary services to law enforcement and the court system. The new Forensic Sciences Center will: provide reliable and credible delivery of forensic sciences services to the city's justice system; earn continued and new accreditation from the regulatory entities; and establish functional capacity for the provision of services that will address emerging and complex demands, most significantly the expected increase in gun crime and the effects of heightened demand for DNA analysis.

NCA/NCF